Paul Ryan promises to not push immigration reform while Obama occupies the White House...

Hmm...

NRO – Paul Ryan has signed off on a letter promising restless members of the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) that he won’t bring immigration-reform legislation to the House floor while President Obama remains in office.
The letter, obtained exclusively by National Review, formalizes pledges that Ryan made last week in a closed-door meeting with select members of the HFC who were skeptical of his promise to maintain an “open” and “inclusive” relationship with the caucus. Specifically, it extracts Ryan’s word that he will not bring up comprehensive immigration reform “so long as Barack Obama is president” and, as speaker, Ryan will not allow any immigration bill to reach the floor for a vote unless a “majority” of GOP members support it.
Keep on reading…

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit gives Obama's illegal immigration amnesty a likely deathblow...

Unless SCOTUS decides to take this case as a emergency action, which Obama hasn't yet requested and SCOTUS is unlikely to grant, this case will likely drag out past Obama's term in office. SCOTUS loves to let cases ripen naturally. Of course, if a Democrat wins in 2016 and if SCOTUS rules in favor of Obama's executive action, it could be implemented. That is a lot of big ifs.
 
Via Washington Times:

A federal appeals court upheld an injunction against President Obama’s new deportation in a ruling Tuesday that marks the second major legal setback for an administration that had insisted its actions were legal.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of Texas, which had sued to stop the amnesty, on all key points, finding that Mr. Obama’s amnesty likely broke the law governing how big policies are to be written.
“The public interest favors maintenance of the injunction,” the judges wrote in the majority opinion.
Keep reading…

Rubio tries to get right on immigration...

Can he be trusted?

Via WSJ

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Friday that he is indebted to America for welcoming his Cuban immigrant parents, while he continued to back away from his 2013 legislation that would have allowed illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens.
Mr. Rubio, a likely presidential contender, was a major sponsor of a bill that was cast by conservatives as bestowing amnesty on law-breaking immigrants. “It wasn’t very popular. I don’t know if you know that from some of the folks here,” he quipped to an audience of hundreds of activists gathered for the Conservative Political Action Conference.
The bill’s critics were proven right, Mr. Rubio said, by what he described as President Barack Obama’s failure to enforce border security. He said immigration legislation is still necessary, not to integrate undocumented workers into society, as some say, but to make sure employers can’t hire illegal immigrants. Mr. Rubio also condemned President Obama’s executive order shielding millions of illegal immigrants from deportation as unconstitutional. Keep on reading...

WaPo gives Obama an upside-down Pinocchio for lying about immigration EO...

When the Washington post calls out a democrat for lying, you know it must be a blatant whopper. 

Via Washington Post:

Question: Your administration has deported a record high number, 1.5 million, of undocumented immigrants, more than your predecessor. And I know your administration took some steps last year to protect unintended undocumented immigrants from being deported. However many people say those efforts were not enough. What I’d like to know is what you’re going to do now, and until the time that immigration reform is passed, to insure that more people aren’t being deported and families are not being broken apart.
Obama: Well, look Jackie, this is something I’ve struggled with throughout my presidency. The problem is that you know I’m the president of the United States. I’m not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed, and Congress right now has not changed what I consider to be a broken immigration system. [...]
The Pinocchio Test
The president has certainly been consistent on this issue—until he saw that the path through Congress was blocked. It’s clear from the interviews that the president was not being asked about executive orders that would have provided comprehensive immigration reform, but about specific actions that ended deportations of a subset of illegal immigrants—precisely the type of action he will shortly unveil.
Previously he said that was not possible, using evocative language that he is not a “king” or “the emperor.” Apparently he’s changed his mind. The president earns an upside-down Pinocchio for his flip-flop.

Immigration Reform Wreckage...

Elections have consequences...

Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas voted for the Gang of 8 bill. He’s GONE.
Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina voted for the Gang of 8 bill. GONE.
Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado voted for the Gang of 8 bill. GONE
Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska voted for the Gang of 8 bill. Almost certainly GONE
Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana voted for the Gang of 8 bill. She will probably be GONE after a January runoff.
Alison Grimes supported the Gang of 8 bill in Kentucky. DEFEATED
Michelle Nunn supported the Gang of 8 bill in Georgia. DEFEATED
Greg Orman supported the Gangof 8 bill in Kansas. DEFEATED
Bruce Braley supoorted the Gang of 8 bill in Iowa. DEFEATED
Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Mark Warner of Virginia voted for the Gang of 8 bill and BARELY SURVIVED against longshot challengers.

Obama tries to explain why he delayed his immigration reform executive order...

Obama actually admits it political...

“The truth of the matter is that the politics did shift midsummer..."

               
           

Head Fake: Obama delaying EO on immigration reform until after 2014 midterm elections...

Republicans need to hammer home that this is a political delay and voters need to vote in representatives who will work to stop Obama's overreach.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Abandoning his pledge to act by the end of summer, President Barack Obama has decided to delay any executive action on immigration until after the November congressional elections, White House officials said.
The move instantly infuriated immigration advocates while offering relief to some vulnerable Democrats in tough Senate re-election contests.
Two White House officials said Obama concluded that circumventing Congress through executive actions on immigration during the campaign would politicize the issue and hurt future efforts to pass a broad overhaul.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the president's decision before it was announced, said Obama made his decision Friday as he returned to Washington from a NATO summit in Wales.
They said Obama called a few allies from Air Force One to inform them of his decision, and that the president made more calls from the White House on Saturday.
The officials said Obama had no specific timeline to act, but that he still would take his executive actions.

IBD/TIPP poll: Only 22% say Obama should "sidestep Congress on immigration reform

I would be shocked if Obama unilaterally did any major thing about immigration reform before the 2014 midterms....

(IBD)- According to the latest IBD/TIPP poll, 73% of the public say Obama should work with Congress on reforms. Just 22% say he should "sidestep Congress and act on his own using executive orders" — something the president has repeatedly pledged to do.
Among independents, 78% say Obama should work with Congress, with only 19% saying he should go it alone. Even among Democrats, only 39% say Obama should act unilaterally, while 54% say he should work with Congress.
Another trouble sign for Obama: The age group most fervently opposed to him on immigration is the young voters he has successfully courted in the past. Fully 80% of those age 18 to 24 want him to work with Congress on reform, and just 15% side with Obama's plan to bypass Congress if they fail to act.

WaPo: Immigration politics may be turning against Obama and Democrats...

Democrats thought they had Republicans in a no win immigration situation going into the mid-terms and 2016. If they passed immigration reform, they alienated their base. If they didn't, they alienated Hispanics. Now the tide has turned with the recent tsunami of minors flooding across the border. If Obama sends them back, he will alienate liberals and Hispanics. If he welcomes them with open arms, he may alienate blacks and a majority of other Americans. The democrat's united front on immigration is disintegrating and the immigration focus has shifted to border security. Instead of talking about immigration reform, the discussion will be about border security and deportation for the rest of this year. The public views Republicans as the party of strong border security.

Via WaPo:

Until now, the politics of immigration have been seen as a no-lose proposition for President Obama and the Democrats. If they could get a comprehensive overhaul passed, they would win. And if Republicans blocked it, the GOP would further alienate crucial Hispanic and moderate voters.
But with the current crisis on the Southwest border, where authorities have apprehended tens of thousands of unaccompanied Central American children since October, that calculus may be shifting.
Republicans and even some Democrats have accused Obama of being insufficiently engaged in a calamity that many say he should have seen coming.
And the president’s own party is deeply divided over what must be done now — particularly on the sensitive question of deporting children who have traveled thousands of miles and turned themselves in to U.S. authorities to escape from the desperate
situations they faced in countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
The emergency has also renewed questions about the administration’s competence, reminiscent of those raised during the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, last year’s botched rollout of the health-care law and more recent revelations of mismanagement that jeopardized care of patients at veterans hospitals. Keep on reading...

Flashback 2012: President Obama says he has to use the legislative process to change immigration law

Change...

Obama is going to take his pen and violate the law and the Constitution again...

Since Obama can't get his way on immigration reform, he is going to shred the law and the Constitution again...

WASHINGTON — President Obama said Monday he would use his executive power to make potentially sweeping changes to the nation’s immigration system without Congress, acknowledging the death of his more than yearlong effort to enact compromise legislation granting legal status to 11 million immigrants here illegally.

Mr. Obama said he had ordered a shift of immigration enforcement resources from the interior of the country toward the southern border, and was asking his team to report back to him by the end of the summer on additional actions he could take. The actions could be as far-reaching as giving work permits and protection from deportation to millions of immigrants now in the country.

Mr. Obama angrily blamed congressional Republicans for the collapse of the legislative effort.

Amusing: Immigration reform activists stormed Cantor's headquarters after he lost,..

Cantor supports immigration reform. It's one of the reasons he lost.

Video: RINO John Boehner mocks immigration reform opponents...

John Boehner is a douchbag...

Scary: Speaker John Boehner promises industry groups action on immigration reform this year.

I trust Boehner and other Republican leaders about as far as I can throw them...

WASHINGTON—Speaker John Boehner and other senior House Republicans are telling donors and industry groups that they aim to pass immigration legislation this year, despite the reluctance of many Republicans to tackle the divisive issue before the November elections.
Many lawmakers and activists have assumed the issue was off the table in an election year. But Mr. Boehner said at a Las Vegas fundraiser last month he was "hellbent on getting this done this year," according to two people in the room.
A spokesman for Mr. Boehner didn't dispute the account but said no action is possible until President Barack Obama proves himself a trustworthy partner to Republicans.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.), chairman of the HouseJudiciary Committee, delivered an upbeat message about legislative prospects during a recent trip to Silicon Valley, said Carl Guardino, chief executive of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, who hosted his visit.

RINO Rep. Peter King Now Supports Immigration Reform And Amnesty...

Geez. King's district was redrawn to include more Hispanics. Now, he has changed his tune on immigration reform. RINO's have no core values.

Via NY Times:

Who says old politicians can’t reinvent themselves, jettison long-held beliefs and emerge from ideological cocoons, fresh as butterflies?
Representative Peter King, who is about to turn 70, showed up on Friday night for a town-hall meeting in a Hispanic corner of his Long Island district. He brought his big smile and pompadour, looking every bit the guy who has been a fixture of Republican politics in suburban New York since the ’70s, but he sounded like someone completely different.
His hosts were mostly Spanish-speaking immigrants, invited by a nonprofit community organization, Make the Road New York. More than 150 people crammed into the room, quieting their babies and cellphones, eager to hear what their “congresista” had to say about immigration reform.
Oil, meet water. Mr. King is a combative right-winger who spent the last decade opposing efforts to reform immigration laws. This night, though, he presented himself as the proud holder of another point of view.
“I’ve had real issues with the whole concept of having a large number of illegal immigrants coming into the country,” he acknowledged. But he also said that he now supported the Republicans’ recently released — and almost immediately shelved — “principles” for immigration reform, including legalization for 11 million people. He said the odds of reform passing the House this year were not good, given the election and the power of the Tea Party to make primaries difficult for immigration moderates. But he made clear that he wished it were otherwise.
What changed?
Mr. King’s heart, maybe. His district, definitely. Mr. King lives in Seaford, hamlet on the South Shore of Long Island that is 95 percent white, and has, for years, solidly represented the interests of the white, conservative middle class. But his redrawn 2nd Congressional District extends east to enfold heavily black and Hispanic enclaves like Brentwood and Central Islip. While Mr. King’s re-election this year seems a lock, 2016 may be harder, and he has been out getting to know his new friends.

Video: Democrats reacting to GOP-e Amnesty plans

The poll John Boehner needs to see...

Gallop poll finds only 3% think immigration reform is our biggest issue.

Via Gallup:

Fail: Immigration reform advocates get aggressive with Republicans...

Here is a helpful hint to immigrants. Immigration reform will require bipartisanship. Stop voting 70+% democrat and you can get most of what you want. 

Via Politico:

Immigration reform advocates have tried being polite. They’ve staged acts of civil disobedience and warned Republicans the party will pay at the ballot box if they drag their feet on an overhaul.
But none of that has worked — so now, immigration activists are in all-out harassment mode.
In recent weeks, advocates have taken a decidedly sharper, more aggressive turn in their efforts to pressure lawmakers — primarily Republicans — on an immigration overhaul that would create a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants in the country.
They stormed House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) condo in Arlington, Va. They delivered reams of letters to House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and dozens of other House Republicans from children of immigrant families. They’ve confronted Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) during breakfast at his favorite Capitol Hill diner and prayed on the doorsteps of his suburban Cincinnati home.
But, so far, the in-your-face strategy isn’t working. After the Senate passed the most comprehensive immigration overhaul in a generation in June, the effort has stalled. And the tough tactics are turning off key House GOP lawmakers whose support will be vital if legislation is to clear Congress.

Actual Good News: Gang Of Eight Immigration Bill Dead For 2013

Harry Reid and John McCain hardest hit...

Via The Hill:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) chided Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) for his refusal to negotiate with the Senate on immigration reform.
“I'm stunned,” Reid said in an interview Wednesday with Fusion, a joint venture by ABC News and Univision. “How could anybody in good conscience tell one group he's trying to do immigration reform, and a few minutes later, say 'I'm not going to do anything about a conference?' "
Earlier in the day, Boehner reiterated what he’s said before on immigration reform: “I'll make clear we have no intention ever of going to conference on the Senate bill."
His comments confirmed the House will not take up the issue this year, which President Obama and Democrats have pressed for. Last week, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also ruled it out for 2013, arguing there are too few legislative days remaining in this session.

Marco Rubio Retreats From Senate Gang of Eight Immigration Bill He Supported..

This is a step in the right direction for Rubio, but it is too little and too late in my opinion.  It's unlikely the Senate could have passed their crappy immigration reform illegal immigrant amnesty bill without Rubio's support. Aside from the fact it put's 10 million or more potential democratic voters illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship. There was no real enforcement to the border security provisions or other parts Republicans would support. It's likely Obama would just ignore the border security and E-Verify provisions just like he is ignoring the parts of current immigration law he disagrees with. Rubio was very naive to trust Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid and Barack Obama. Marco Rubio needs to do a complete mea culpa and apologize for his stupidity.